A historic Lowcountry town prepares for historic flooding

This may be our new normal. That’s what a Georgetown Official said, referring to the flooding conditions.

With a three-year run of historic flood waters, people in Georgetown are holding tight tonight to the fact their town has survived 300 years of crazy weather.

“It was a storm shelter, everyone would go into it, everyone would be protected,” said Georgetown County Museum Director Lizzie McKee.

A storm shelter built on a Georgetown plantation more than a hundred years ago, after another devastating hurricane.

“Yep, since 1729, and it’s been going on even before then,” said McKee.

Rising waters are nothing new for Georgetown. Now McKee is protecting history as well.

“We are just trying move as much as we can upstairs, to protect it from the incoming water. We have sandbags and tarps to try and stop the flow of water from coming into the actual building,” says McKee.

And while these artifacts are safely housed, homes that date back to the 1730s are threatened for the third straight year in historic Georgetown.

Andrea Johnson is sandbagging the front of her restaurant on historic Front street. “I think we will be all right. This is a blessed little town. You know, we had Hugo, we had Irma, we had Matthew. Through all of that, we had a minimum of damage.”

But according to Georgetown County leaders, this flood from Florence is expected to be just as historic as the town itself.

If estimates hold true, the rising waters will crest higher than the thousand-year flood, meaning 10 feet in some areas.

According to officials, water levels will peak sometime Wednesday night into Thursday.